


Family Dinner on Eternia

by RenkonNairu



Category: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Dysfunctional Family, F/F, F/M, Family Dinners, Gen, M/M, Obscure Character: Skeleteen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27729661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenkonNairu/pseuds/RenkonNairu
Summary: Randor and Marlena want to know what kind of person raised their daughter, so they invite Hordak to dinner. Entrapta thinks the invitation extends to her too, so she tags along. Miro is also there and he insists that Marlena invite Randor's brother too, so Skeletor's coming to dinner! and he's bringing Evil-Lyn and Skeleteen with him. Then Catra shows up, having tagged along with Adora without her knowledge or permission. As if things weren't complicated enough, it l looks like Skeletor and Hordak are ex-boyfriends.What could possibly go wrong?
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), Evil-Lyn/Skeletor (He-Man), Hordak (She-Ra)/Skeletor (He-Man), Keldor's Mother/Randor's Mother, Marlena/Randor (He-Man), Skeletor & Randor
Comments: 72
Kudos: 82





	1. Arrival of Guests

**Author's Note:**

> This was just supposed to be a one-shot. But it's over 3k words and they haven't even sat down to dinner yet, so looks like multi-chapter it will be!

Marlena chewed her bottom lip as she oversaw the servants setting the table for the family dinner. What was supposed to be a simple family dinner was turning into a rather complicated affair. 

Originally, it was just supposed to be the family, herself, Randor, Adam, and the newly found Adora. But Marlena also wanted to know what kind of person had been raising her daughter during their years of separation, and so Marlena had invited Adora’s adopted father, Hordak. 

That was all well and good. Just one extra person. No big deal. 

Then Randor had discovered that his father, the former King, Miro was still alive and wanted to invite him too. Miro, also came with his mates, Randor’s mother Queen Nina, and his brother’s mother Lady Asuka. But they were still family, so what was three more people? Family should always be welcome at the dinner table! 

But then Miro asked where Keldor was. Randor’s older brother and Miro’s eldest son. That was where things began to get complicated. 

Because Keldor was Skeletor. The evil sorcerer that had been terrorizing the planet for the past two decades and effectively split the planet in two halves, with one faction remaining loyal to the monarchy in the light hemisphere, and the other faction breaking away into the Dark Hemisphere. 

But, Miro insisted. 

After all, Skeletor was family. Wasn’t family always be welcome at the dinner table?

So, Skeletor was coming to dinner! 

And he was bringing with him his partner, another evil sorcerer, Evil-Lyn, and their son -apparently they had a son together- Marlena had never met him and she wasn’t even sure of his name, Malkyn, Keldyn, or Skeleteen. 

Marlena was about to play hostess to a team of villains and she honestly didn’t know how she was going to deal with that. 

She took a breath. She just had to treat this like any other political function where the parties’ interests were at odds with one another. Smile. Be polite. But don’t let her guard down.

Coming up behind her, Randor placed his hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently and offering what passed for a reassuring massage from him. 

“It’ll be fine.” He tried to reassure her. “You worry too much.”

“You say that, but your brother has tried to kill you every time you’ve within sight of each other.” Marlena reminded him. She turned around to glare at him. “And your father wants me to smile and serve him dinner!”

“See, that’s why I’m not worried.” Randor only smiled at her, completely unconcerned. “Keldor never once tried to kill me while father was around! Besides, he’ll be too busy trying to win father’s love to worry about me.”

Marlena only went back to chewing her bottom lip. She was far less optimistic about this than her husband. 

She didn’t get to continue her arguments, however, as Miro walked in at that exact moment, a ball under his arm. “Hey, Ran, wanna throw around the old pig skin before the others get here?”

“Do I!” Suddenly, Marlena and her concerns were forgotten and left behind as Randor sprinted out of the dining room following his father outside to toss around their ball. 

And the worst part was, neither Miro nor Randor even thought to invite Adam to play with them. 

…

As misfortune would have it, Skeletor and Evil-Lyn were the first to arrive. Their twice-cursed spawn, Skeleteen, in tow. 

Marlena was tasked with greeting them since Randor and Miro were still unavailable, and Skeletor’s mother along with Randor’s mother had disappeared into a bedroom together some time ago and not emerged since. 

A number of servants accompanied Marlena to welcome the guests, but they all hung back. Shivering. Terrified of Skeletor, the Lord of Destruction, and his formidable partner the Wicked Sorceress Evil-Lyn. Malkyn -Skeleteen- they didn’t actually know much about, he was pretty obscure, but he was terrifying by association. 

He certainly looked terrifying. 

Dressed very similar to Skeletor with bandoliers crossed over his chest decorated in a bone motif, and an armored loincloth. His chest, belly, and thighs exposed, displaying taught skin of a jewel-tone blue color. But instead of a cape, he wore a long vest with a high collar, and the skull of his face didn’t look quite right. Not like a real skull, or, not like his real skull. More like a costume mask. Or a helmet. With a tall mohawk of ebony-black hair sticking up out of the cranium. 

Skeleteen was either a fearsome and formidable warlord in his own right …or else he was just a teenager that wanted to look edgy and was trying too hard. 

It was customary for the hostess to offer some flowery words of welcome. But this was Skeletor. All Marlena could manage was a curt nod and a flat-toned, “Skeletor.”

“Marlena.” Evil-Lyn was the one to answer her. 

There was a tense silence. 

The adults just glared at one another. 

If possible, the servants cowered even harder. 

Then Skeleteen laughed. 

Hooking his thumb under the chin of his skull, he pushed up and lifted what turned out to be the faceplate of a mask. Under it, his face had the healthy amount of soft-tissue normal faces were supposed to have. Blue skin, the same shade of blue as the rest of him. Chin softer and less angular than what Keldor’s looked like before he lost his face, more like Evil-Lyn’s chin. Cheeks a little round, still sporting some baby fat, wide eyes with sharp corners, and white eyebrows. 

“Are you guys gonna fight?” He asked, his voice trembling from laughter. “We just got here. Oh, man, this dinner’s gonna be so terrible. It’s great!”

From a pocket of his long vest, Skeleteen pulled out his phone and started panning it around. First pointing it at his own parents, then turning in a wide arc to get a view of the cowering servants, and Marlena scowling with her arms crossed. 

“So, we just got here and things are already going great-terrible.” He narrated. 

“Malkyn! Put that away!” Skeletor barked at his son. 

In response to this, all Skeleteen did was pan back to his father and zoom in. “Dad’s already ready to blow a gasket and we barely just got in the door.”

Displeased with the sheer level of disobedience from the teenager, Skeletor turned to Evil-Lyn instead. Enlisting the boy’s mother for aid. “Why’d you let him bring that thing? He’s just gonna spend the whole night with his face glued to it.”

“We let you bring your prima donna attitude.” Evil-Lyn shot back. “You can let your son keep his phone. After living with both of you, I guarantee, Malkyn’s phone will be the least of our problems tonight.”

Skeleteen stuck his tongue out at his father. Mom was on his side. He then, exactly as Skeletor foretold, focused all his attention on the screen, typing out a description as he posted the video he just took to… wherever he was posting it to. “Anybody want me to tag them.”

Heaving a frustrated sigh, Skeletor lifted Skeleteen up, throwing the boy over this shoulder and brushed past Marlena. “Just tell me which parlor you were planning on sticking us in until dinner.”

All the while, Skeleteen just kept typing away on his phone. 

Evil-Lyn followed after them. 

…

Adora was next to arrive with her foster father, Hordak. 

Hordak, also seemed to think the invitation extended to his wife, and so he brought her along too. 

“The social and legal nuances of your culture’s ‘marriage’ system elude me.” Hordak announced. “We prefer to refer to each other simply as Lab Partners.”

“Lab Partner.” Marlena plastered what she hopped was a friendly smile on her face. It did not come off very friendly. It was more a long suffering stretching of her lips and crinkling of her eyes. “How kind of her to join us.”

“Oh, no, thank you for inviting us!” Hordak’s lab partner, ‘Princess Entrapta of Dryl’, as she was introduced, summersaulted over Hordak and Adora. She got unnecessarily close to Marlena. Using her hair to lift herself up to be on Marlena’s eye-level. She was so short! “I’ve never been to another planet before. When your invitation came, I couldn’t say no! Eternia is so similar to Etheria! Do you also have multiple climates? The overview I was able to decrypt from Prime’s files says that your whole planet is one nation instead of independently governed territories. Doesn’t that get complicated to manage?” 

It seemed like Entrapta was practically made of questions and Marlena wasn’t sure how to approach any of them. 

Hordak came to her rescue. Running a taloned hand through tendrils of limb-like hair, he said, “Perhaps we should give Adora and the Queen some space. They have only just discovered each other. I am sure they have much to talk about.”

Already, Hordak was Marlena’s favorite guest. 

She smiled up at him. He was so tall! “The rest of our party is waiting in the parlor while dinner is being prepared. I can have a servant show you.”

Hordak nodded. “Then the parlor is where we will go.”

Wrapping a tendril of hair around his arm, Entrapta and Hordak followed the servant.

Alone, Marlena and Adora hugged each other tightly. 

“I thank the Goddess every day that you’re safe!” Marlena puttered into her daughter’s blond ponytail. 

“I have so much to tell you!” Adora announced, speaking louder than necessary, she was so excited to have a mother finally. A real mother. Shadow Weaver did not count.

“I want to hear everything!” Marlena promised. “But so will your father and your brother. We should wait for them.”

“I have a father and a brother!?” Adora gaped, slightly dazed. 

“Yes.” Marlena confirmed, pulled out of the hug just enough to take her daughter’s arm and lead her outside to where Randor was still playing ball with Miro. 

By now Adam would be out there too. Probably not playing with them, Adam was a sweet boy, but he wasn’t very physical. But he would be there cheering for them. 

“They’re going to be so excited to see you.” Marlena promised. 

Meanwhile, in the parlor… 

Hordak stepped through the door and came face to face, or more accurately, face to skull, with someone he never thought he’d see again. 

“You!” Both Skeletor and Hordak exclaimed in unison. 

Evil-Lyn turned, recognized Hordak as well, and crossed the parlor to the mini-bar. “I’m not sober enough to watch this again.”

Skeleteen glanced from his mother, to his father, to the new arrivals, and back again. Not understanding. 

Next to Hordak, Entrapta was similarly confused. “Hordak, you know him?”

“Who’s she?” Skeletor demanded, sounding oddly… not hostile. Not defensive… Offensive? Territorial? Jealous? 

“My lab partner.” Hordak announced. Then very, very quickly amended, “My wife!”

“Wife!?” Skeletor was so irrationally upset. 

Across the room, Evil-Lyn took a shot.

Entrapta was still confused. 

So was Skeleteen. “So… you guys know each other?”

Skeletor’s empty eye-sockets remained focused on Hordak, glaring at the other man with a level of venom and scorn that was impressive for a guy without a face. He didn’t even look away when he answered his son. “Hordak is an ex-partner of mine.”

“Ex-boyfriend.” Evil-Lyn corrected. 

“Oh.” Entrapta blinked. Then lowered her welding mask over her face. She never considered before that Hordak might have had romantic interests before her. And now they were having dinner together. How uncomfortable! 

Skeleteen, however, seemed derive an odd amount of schadenfreudian glee from the announcement. “And the night gets worse-better!”

His phone was in his hands again. 

Sliding up next to Hordak and standing up on the tips of his toes to be closer to the level of Hordak’s head, Skeleteen snapped a picture. “Commemorative selfie!” 

“Malkyn!” Skeletor shouted. He was going to be shouting that name all night it seemed. “Get away from him!”

Skeletor did seem to have a point though. Hordak did not seem very pleased with a strange and unfamiliar teenager slithering close into his personal space. Hordak growled, low and threatening in the back of his throat. 

Skeleteen eased away, taking the overt hint. “Bad tempered and moody, damn, you might just be soulmates.” He cast his eyes across the room to Evil-Lyn. “How’d he end up with you, Mom?”

“My own bad taste.” Evil-Lyn informed her son. 

If anyone was going to say anything else, they didn’t get the chance to. 

Somehow, while everyone else was distracted by Skeleteen’s antics, Entrapta had crossed the room, and was wafting around Skeletor. 

“This is so fascinating!” She announced, lifting her welding mask. Eyes sparkling with interest. “No wonder Hordak liked you. How are you even alive?”

She waved a tendril of hair in the empty space between his shoulder and his skull, where a neck should be. Her hair passed though with zero resistance. 

“Stop that!” Skeletor moved away. 

But Entrapta appeared to be surrounding him. “Fascinating.”

Seemingly from out of nowhere, she produced a small penlight and shined it through the holes in his skull where his ears used to be. The light came out the other side, shining all the wall. As if there was nothing in his head. A completely empty skull. No soft tissue. No brain mater. Nothing. 

“Get off me!” Using his Havoc Staff, he formed a magical barrier around himself and expanded it to push Entrapta back. He then turned his attention back to Hordak. “This is who you left me for?”

“Left you?” Hordak echoed. “I didn’t ‘leave’ you! You opened up a portal and sent me to an almost empty dimension just because you didn’t want to have an argument!”

“You never washed a dish! Ever!” Skeletor roared. 

“I never used them!” Hordak snarled back. Prior to being stranded on Etheria, all Hordak ever consumed was nutrient rich amniotic fluid. What would he need traditional plates and flatware for? Now that he was experimenting with Entrapta and trying new things, he still didn’t have to wash dishes. Entrapta had people to do that for them. 

“Unbelievable!” Skeletor threw his arms up in frustration. He stomped over to the minibar where Evil-Lyn was already poring him a drink of his own.

This whole affair was already a giant mess, and Skeletor hadn’t even seen Miro or Randor yet!

…

Marlena led Adora through the palace and back outside to the gardens. 

A wide open space and very sunny. Like the gardens in Brightmoon, only while Brightmoon’s gardens were left just a little wild, the flowers and vines left to grow as they pleased, these were more controlled and meticulously tended. The trees pruned and the flowers contained in their beds. And a large grassy lawn that was diligently mowed. 

It was on this grassy lawn that two men appeared to be fighting over a ball, while a third man around Adora’s own age sat to the side, a book held loosely in his hands while he watched the other two. 

“Adam,” Marlena called, “Randor, Miro, come meet Adora.”

Adora had no idea which name was attached to which person. 

The boy watching the two older man grapple of the ball set his book down, and obediently trotted over to the two women. 

He was exactly the same height as Adora. When he came up to them, their eyes met and Adora saw that they were identical to her own. Same shape, same color, same lashes, same everything. They were around the same age too. So… this had to be her brother, right? The brother her mother said she had. 

“Adora, this is your brother.” Marlena confirmed only seconds after Adora had guessed. “Adam, this is your sister who was taken from us when you were both just babies.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Adam said stiffly, as if he didn’t know what he was supposed to do or say. 

Adora understood. She also didn’t really know what to do or say. She had lived her whole life without any family or even a clue as to who she was or where she came from. Now, all of a sudden, she had a mother, and a father, and a brother. It was a lot. A lot all at once. She didn’t know if she should jump for joy, or run off into a corner and cry from all her overwhelming emotions. 

In the end, she settled on channeling her inner Bow. 

As a general rule, Adora wasn’t much of a hugger, but the moment Adam extended his hand out for her to shake, Adora surprised both him and herself by surging forward and wrapping both arms around him in one of the fiercest and tightest hugs Adora had ever initiated. She even lifted him up off his feet a few centimeters. 

“Whoa!” Was all Adam could manage in response as he had the air squeezed out of him. 

“Sorry.” Adora put him back down and took a step back. She had inexplicable tears in her eyes, and she reached a hand up to wipe them away. “I don’t usually do that. I just- wow- I have a brother!”

Her hands clasped over her heart, smiling like she’d never before been happy until this moment, tears in her own eyes, Marlena watched her children. She didn’t even care that Skeletor was lurking in a parlor probably plotting to poison them all at dinner. She had her daughter back and her children were together. Nothing could make this moment more perfect. 

“Randor!” She called to her husband to come over and share her joy with her. 

The only response Marlena got was louder grunts as Randor and Miro continued to wrestle each other for their ball. 

“Randor!” Marlena called again, more harshly this time. “Come meet your daughter!”

“In a minute!” Randor called back to her, his attention still focused on his father and the game. “This old man’s tougher than he looks!”

“What are they doing?” Adora asked. 

“They’re trying to get the ball through either of those posts in the grass.” Adam explained, pointing. 

“So, all I gotta do is get the ball through those posts and I get to meet my father?” Adora confirmed. She nodded. “Okay.”

Without further comment or warning, Adora. Jumped onto the grassy lawn. She sprinted to Randor and Miro, barreled into the two men with her shoulder. All three of them went tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. 

“What the-!?” It was unclear who exclaimed this. 

Trying to disentangle herself from the other two, Adora grabbed the ball and started running to the nearest pair of posts. 

“Hey!” One of them shouted after her. 

Adora quickly found herself pursued by two men in armor trying to reclaim the ball, and they were gaining ground on her. 

Lifting the ball over her head, Adora lobbed it through the air, throwing from her shoulder. It sailed in a perfect spiral, heading for the space between the posts. It would have gone through too. If it weren’t for a figure jumping out of nowhere and catching the ball mid-air. 

“What!?” Adora blinked, recognizing the new arrival. 

“Hey, Adora.” She smirked, flashing sharp teeth, and bounced the ball on her hip. 

“Catra!” Was all Adora managed to gasp out before she was tackled by Randor and Miro. 

Marlena and Adam came running up to the tangle of bodies. 

“Are you all quite done?” She demanded of her husband and her father-in-law. Then she raised her eyes to Catra. “And are you… a friend of Adora’s?”

“Ugh… begrudgingly…” Adora groaned, pulling herself out from under her father and her grandfather. “Mother, this is Catra. She’s my… um…”

“Girlfriend.” Catra announced, helping to pull Adora up and then wrapping an arm around her waist. She pressed Adora’s side flush against their own so that there was no space between them at all. “I’m Adora’s girlfriend.”

“I see.” Marlena smiled, happy that her daughter was so well adjusted that she managed to find partnership and romance even being raised away from her family who loved. Then the corners of her mouth turned down in annoyance. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing your girlfriend to dinner.”

“Oh, well, I- she-“ In all honestly, Adora didn’t even know Catra was coming. She just showed up. As far as Adora knew, Catra was still on Etheria serving her community service as part of the Horde’s reparations after the war. 

Marlena sighed. “It’s fine. This is fine. I’ll just tell the staff to set an extra place. Hordak brought his lab partner and I wasn’t expecting that either. What’s one more unexpected guest?”

Hopefully, nothing else unexpected would happen.


	2. The Dinner

By the time Marlena managed to herd everyone into the dining hall, the servants had added two new place setting for Entrapta and Catra. 

A long table, draped in a red tablecloth with an orange runner down the center, the plates shining yellow-gold in the place settings. Everything was a wash of warm colors. The room was almost too bright. 

Entrapta had to lower her welding mask over her face until her eyes adjusted. 

It seemed she wasn’t the only one. Skeletor and Evil-Lyn’s son, Skeleteen, did the same, lowering the skull designed face-plate of his own helmet down over his face. “Are those solid gold forks?”

“Leave them.” Skeletor commanded, placing an almost restraining hand on his son’s shoulder. 

Skeletor, Randor, and Miro all went for the seat at the head of the table at the same time. 

“Boys,” began Miro, looking from one of his sons to the other. “I do believe, as patriarch of this family, I should sit at the head of the table.”

“But this is my house!” Randor gestured vaguely at the palace around them. “My wife is hosting this dinner. I should sit at the head of the table!”

“Nuts to you both!” Skeletor snarled. “I’m the rightful King of Eternia, and this is the capital! I should sit at the head of the table. It’s my rightful place!”

“Now, hang on a minute, I distinctly remember naming Randor as the next King before I died.” Miro informed him. “Why don’t you go sit next to your lovely not-wife and your son, Keldor.”

“Don’t call me that!” Skeletor shouted, irrationally angry at the mere mention of his old name. 

“You’re not dead, father.” Randor reminded Miro. “You’re standing right here. But, since you’re not King anymore, why don’t you go sit with your harem.”

Lady Asuka and former-Queen Nina seemed to be oblivious to the power struggle going on at the head of the table. Asuka pulled a chair out for Nina, and Nina brushed her hip against Asuka’s thigh as she sat down. The two women made unnecessarily intense eye-contact as Asuka took her seat next to Nina. 

Still standing next to his mother, Skeleteen gave another amused chuckle. His phone in his hands, holding it up so that he could shoot a video of the three ‘Kings’ fighting over a seat at the dinner table. “This is gonna get me so many more followers!” 

All three men looked up them froze. Neither one of them wanted to come off as the jerk in a video that might possibly go viral across the planet. 

“Randor, just let your father sit at the head of the table!” Marlena commanded. “Think of Adora! Do you really want her first impression of her father to be that of a petty man who fights with his brother and his elderly father over a chair?”

Randor looked to Adora. She was standing between her brother and her girlfriend, looking more confused than anything else. Was this how things were done on Eternia? She sat in a wrong chair once. Sometimes, where a person sat at a table could be a deeply emotional and important nuance. 

“Skeletor, come sit with us.” Evil-Lyn said between sips of her drink. Some kind of clear spirit. Vodka, or gin, or clear sake, one of the ones like that. 

Begrudgingly, stifling a growl of frustration, Skeletor stomped back over to his family, pulled out a chair roughly, making a point to scrape the legs across the floor, and sat down. 

Randor took the seat at Miro’s right hand, with Marlena on his other side, Adam next to her, Adora next to her twin, and Catra on Adora’s other side. 

On the other side of the table was Skeletor, with Skeleteen sitting between him and Evil-Lyn. Entrapta sat on Evil-Lyn’s other side and then Hordak across from Catra. 

Both Keldor’s mother, and Randor’s mother somehow managed to fit two chairs at the end of the table. Of course, they might have even been sharing one chair, as close together as they were sitting. They were practically in each other’s laps. 

“So…” Adora began, unsure of what was supposed to happen now. She had never been to a ‘family dinner’ before. 

Examining his place setting, Skeleteen picked up one of the forks, bent it in half, then back again so that it was mostly straight again. “It is solid gold!” He announced. “There are entire villages on the boarder of the Burning Sands that have to live off one crate of rice a day, and they’re here eating off solid gold plates with solid gold forks.”

Skeletor placed a hand over his son’s, forcing the younger man to lay the fork back down on the table. “Not right now.”

“Right.” Skeleteen nodded. “Not right now.”

He took his phone back out and started typing out… something. 

“So, this is nice.” Marlena stretched her lips into something she hoped looked like a smile. She was sharing her table with Skeletor and sitting across the table from Skeletor’s spawn. She didn’t actually have much to smile about. “Why don’t we start the first course.”

She snapped her fingers and a door against the opposite side they entered from opened and a line of servants entered. They set solid gold bowl on top of the solid gold plates that were already at their place setting, then ladled warm hot soup into them. 

For a brief moment, nobody moved. Unsure if they should start eating. Was it rude to just start eating? Did they wanna say a few words before the meal. Oy, was someone going to want to give a toast!? Was it gonna be a long one? How long were they gonna keep them waiting? 

“Wine, too.” Miro said to the last servant before they disappeared back out of the dining room. “I want to make toast.”

Damn it!

Another servant came out with a flagon of wine, and a second with a flagon of juice for the younger diners at the table. 

When everyone’s cup was filled, Miro raised his own. “I’m so happy to have the whole family together again under one roof.” He announced. “I haven’t celebrated this holiday in years-“ probably due to the fact that he was dead “-but I’m happy that the first holiday dinner I get to share is with my estranged son, Keldor,-“

“That’s not my name anymore.” Skeletor interrupted. 

But Miro continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “…and with my granddaughter, Adora, whom we all thought was lost to us forever. Stand up, Adora, let us get a look at you.”

Feeling more awkward than she ever hand before in her life, Adora pushed back her chair and stood. She gave a hesitant little wave, and flashed the exact same smile she used back in the early days when she wasn’t yet comfortable telling people she was She-Ra and didn’t know how to handle the attention. “Hi… everybody…”

Miro nodded, satisfied, and Adora set back down quickly. Happy to have everyone’s attention back on the old man again instead of her. “This holiday we’re not just observing a feast, we’re also celebrating the return of one of our lost children. To Adora!”

Miro drank his wine. 

“To Adora.” Echoed Randor, Marlena, Adam, and Catra. 

No one on the opposite side of the table shared in the toast. 

Skeleteen just started eating without waiting for permission. 

So did Catra. “Hm! This is good!”

“It tastes like hot milk and unseasoned potatoes.” Skeleteen informed her, unimpressed. 

It was a dairy based cream of potato soup. Not very well spiced. There was no garlic, or pepper, or even onion in it. But there was a lot of butter. Cream and butter, of course the cat-girl would like it. 

“Adora, try some.” Catra offered a spoonful from her own bowl. 

Adora cast an unsure glance at her parents. Were displays of affection and intimacy allowed at the dinner table? Then she cast a glance down at the opposite end of the table, where her grandmother and Uncle Skeletor’s mother were sharing one spoon. 

Leaning in close to Catra, Adora ate the offered morsel off of Catra’s spoon. “It’s not bad. Very creamy.”

Watching this exchange, Marlena cleared her throat. “Ahm, so, Adora, how’d you and Catra meet?”

There was a pause in which both women hesitated. 

They made quick eye-contact, then just as quickly looked away. 

Then Adora announced, “Catra helped me save Etheria!”

While at the exact same time, Catra shouted, “We grew up together!”

Marlena blinked down the table at them, confused. Which was it? Did they grow up together? Were they childhood friends? Or did they only just meet recently when Catra helped Adora save Etheria from the Horde? 

“I mean, we did grow up together.” Adora admitted. “But I didn’t realize I wanted to be with her, like, really be with her, until she helped me save Etheria. I really…” Adora took Catra’s hand in hers. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Well, isn’t that sweet.” Marlena smiled at them. “What a lovely romance.”

Adora and Catra exchanged another look. Both secretly agreeing not to let Adora’s mother know about the torrid power-struggle that was at many points outright violent, that was their relationship prior to saving Etheria. Marlena need never know. 

“Were you another of Hordak’s wards?” Marlena continued to question, trying to get to know her daughter’s girlfriend as much as she was her daughter. 

On the other side of the table, Hordak appeared to choke on his soup. 

Entrapta rubbed his back with her hair, trying to sooth him. 

“Actually, I had very little to do with raising any of the orphans in my care.” He announced. “That job was delegated to someone else.”

“Oh.” Marlena appeared confused. “I wasn’t aware. Should I have invited them…?”

“No!” Both Adora and Catra deadpanned at the same time. 

“She was a b-“ Catra began. 

But Adora cut her off. “She’s dead.”

“Oh.” This time it was a more somber ‘oh’. “I’m so sorry to hear that, girls. Were you close with them?”

Again, Catra and Adora exchanged a look. 

“Sometimes…” Adora began, unsure of how she was going to actually answer the question, “…it felt like she lived in my head.”

“Oh, so they were a strong influence on you.” Marlena concluded. 

“You could say that.” Adora agreed. That was a thing that could be said. 

Everyone went back to their meal. 

For a moment, the only sound in the dining room was the sound of spoons scraping over the bowls as everyone ate their soup. 

Then Skeletor cleared his throat, leaning back to get a clear view of Hordak around all the people seated between them. “I can’t help but notice, Hordak, that you’re using a dish. Lucky for you, you don’t have to wash this one.”

“Very lucky.” Hordak set his spoon down and similarly leaned back to glare at Skeletor. “I would hate to be teleported into a shadow dimension over a petty domestic task.”

“It’s not petty!” Skeletor shouted down the table at him. “The pile of dishes in the sink was taller than me!”

“That is not very tall.” Hordak informed him. 

“I’m taller than you’re new wife!” Skeletor snarled. “She- where did she go?”

Everyone peered down the table to see that Entrapta’s seat at the end was, indeed, empty. Everyone started looking around the room, trying to see where she had gone. No one even saw her get up. She didn’t make any sound either. It was like she just vanished. 

Hordak, Catra, and Adora all looked up. 

There was Entrapta. 

Hanging from the chandelier and poised above Skeletor. 

Following the other’s eyes, Skeletor looked up above him- -and nearly fell out of his chair. He scrambled out from under Enterapta. “What in all the hells!? Get away from me!”

“How are you eating?” Entrapta asked, not at all phased by his very clear hostility. “Where does the food go after it enters your mouth? You don’t have a throat for it to pass down. How does it reach your stomach from your floating skull? Actually, how does your floating skull stay with your body when you move around? I’d think your skull would just remain stationary while your body walks off without it.”

Skeletor turned back to Hordak. “Can you not control your woman?”

“One does not control Entrapta.” Hordak informed him. “You can either allow her to flourish, or else get out of her way.”

“How can I get her to leave me be so I can suffer through this meal in peace?” Skeletor demanded. 

“Entrapta,” Hordak called to his lab partner, “I would feel much better about your own safety if you did not continue your examinations of Skeletor. He just might open up a portal and send you to a dimension where I cannot follow.”

“Oh.” Entrapta nodded, understanding something the others did not. “Don’t wanna mess around with portals again.”

Adora and Catra understood. 

There was an odd tension in the air. 

Marlena forced another hospitable smile on her face. “How about the next course?”

More servants entered to clear out the soup bowls and refill the wine of juice -or in Evil-Lyn’s case, whatever clear spirit she was drinking. Then another battery of servants brought in treys of grilled vegetables, mashed potatoes, cheesy macaroni, and bread pudding. 

Marlena began portioning out the food. Asking each guest to pass her their plate so she could fill it from the serving treys. A real family style meal, like the common folk did. 

Catra really liked the cheesy macaroni. Thick creamy cheese with yet more butter. She was so glad she invited herself along. Who knew they had such good food here on Eternia!

Adora was slightly less impressed. Everything served was easily just as good as anything she was fed while at the palace in Brightmoon. 

Skeleteen, however, seemed visibly disappointed. He took a bite of the cheesy macaroni, thought it was no different than the soup. He tried a bite of the potatoes and realized they were literally just potatoes that had been boiled and then mashed, there was nothing added to them for flavor. The grilled vegetables were a similar story, aside from the bitterness of being vegetables, the only added flavor was the slight charring on either side. 

He took his phone back out and began texting again. 

“So, Keldor,” began Miro.

“That’s not my name.” Skeletor reminded him. 

“That’s a pretty nasty scar you got there.” Miro continued as if Skeletor hadn’t interrupted. 

“What scar?” Skeletor sounded so confused, if he still had eyes everyone was sure he would be blinking. “You mean my face? You mean how my face is missing? You mean how my whole head is just my bare skull being held up by dark magic and my own stubborn willpower? That ‘scar’. Is that what you’re referring to?”

“Yes.” Miro confirmed, deadpan, without inflection. 

Skeletor sighed. “What about it?”

“Nothing.” Miro assured him.

“Do you wanna know how I got it?” Skeletor offered. “Or would that be taking too much of an interest in me for you?”

Skeleteen looked up from his phone. “Finally, some salt at this table!”

“Salt?” Miro glanced at everything laid out over the table. There was no saltshaker. 

“It’s what the kids are saying these days.” Skeletor translated for his father. “It describes a person being upset, or ‘salty’. You see, father, unlike you, I actually take an interest in my son. Right, Malkyn?” 

Skeleteen did not respond. He was, once again, typing on his phone. 

“Malkyn!” Skeletor snapped. 

“What!?” Skeleteen looked up again. “Yes, you’re a regular helicopter parent. Jeez! Just let me live-tweet his terrible dinner in peace!”

“Now listen here, Keldor, that’s unfair.” Miro argued. “I always took an interest in you boys.”

“No, you took an interest in Randor!” Skeletor snarled back. He had given up on trying to correct his father on his new name. “You spent quality time with Randor! You would play games with Randor! You never did any of that with me!”

“Well, you were just never interested in fun things.” Miro informed him. “You liked books, and magic, and word games, and puzzles. Ya know… nerd stuff. Randor liked to go outside and play contact sports.”

“That shouldn’t matter, I’m still your son!” Skeletor roared. “You shouldn’t have to force your child to bond with you on your terms! You have to adapt to your child!” He jabbed a finger at Skeleteen who was still tweeting on his phone and not paying attention. “You think I care about BTS, or SuperWhoLock, or dabbing? No! But I know about them because that’s what my son cares about!”

Well, it was a good thing Skeletor knew what those were, because no one else at the table had any idea what any of those things were. Dabbing? Never heard of her. 

“I’m sorry, Keldor, I had no idea you felt that way.” Miro informed him, sounding truly remorseful. “After dinner do you wanna go outside and we can toss a ball around?”

“No! I do not want to toss a ball around!” Skeletor stood from his chair again. “Didn’t you hear a thing I just said? I’d wanna do a dramatic reading of the Caradhras scene from ‘Fellowship of the Ring’, where we each play a character.”

“Ugh. Nerd stuff.” Miro scoffed. “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” 

Skeletor grit his teeth, his hand closing over the golden fork of his place setting. 

Moving quickly, more quickly than anyone would have expected since she’d been drinking, Evil-Lyn snapped up out of her seat and launched herself onto Skeletor only moments before he tried to make a lunge at Miro with the fork. Skeleteen dropped his phone on the table to help his mother pull his father back into his seat. Evil-Lyn pried the fork out of his hand. 

“Not right now.” She hissed at him. 

“Yeah, dad, not right now.” Skeleteen repeated. 

Beginning a snarl, but halfway through having the sound morph into a sigh, Skeletor forced himself to relax and allowed his family to pull him back into his chair. “Not right now…”

There was a beat of silence. 

Then Catra gave a laugh. “I gotta say, Adora, your family’s way more fun than I was expecting! Heck! Your uncle’s so dramatic, I bet DT would be jealous!”

Double Trouble wishes they could play a role as dramatic and hammed up as Skeletor. 

Not knowing what to say to that, Adora just took another bite of potato and looked at her brother. Adam had been pretty quiet the whole meal so far. 

Adam reached for Skeleteen’s phone, which had had thrown on the table in his haste to keep his father from stabbing his grandfather. 

Seeing Adam’s hand reaching for it, Skeleteen snatched the device up before his cousin could touch it. “Get your own, cousin, you’re rich.” Skeleteen snapped at him. “Your parents own the planet!”

“I just wanted to see what you were posting.” Adam informed him. 

“Worried I’m making you look bad?” Skeleteen taunted. 

“No.” Adam assured him. That was not the reason why he wanted to get a look at Skeletor’s son’s phone. 

“Who’s ready for the main course!” Marlena jumped up and practically shouted across the table. 

A single servant wheeled in a cart with a large turkey on it. They were about to offer the carving knife to King Randor, then hesitated and offered the carving knife to Miro instead. 

Randor opened his mouth to say something, but Marlena put a hand on his shoulder before he could get a word out. “I don’t want a repeat of the chair argument. Let your father carve.”

Randor shut his mouth without saying anything. 

Miro cut into the turkey, slicing off pieces of breast. Everyone passed their plate up the table so that he could slide a cut of the bird onto it. 

“Finally! Some meat!” Skeleteen seemed particularly excited. The moment his plate was set back down in front of him, he took an over-large bite of it. Shoving more into his mouth than was practical. He looked so disappointed before swallowing. Then put a hand to his head as if he had a frustration headache. “What is it with you people?” He muttered. “How can you control more than half the planet’s spice trade, and still make food like this?”

“Food like what?” Adora asked. She took a bite of her own turkey. It tasted fine to her. Slow cooked, and rotated often enough so that all the juices stayed inside. It was good. “I like it.”

“Of course you do.” Skeleteen pushed his plate away and started typing on his phone again. 

There was another lull in conversation as everyone ate their turkey. 

No one else seemed to have any objections to the lack of seasoning. 

“So, Catra,” Marlena began again, trying to get to know her daughter’s girlfriend. “What do you do?”

“Uh…” Catra froze, unsure how to define her occupations to Adora’s mother.

“Up until recently, Catra was my second-in-command on Etheria.” Hordak announced. He dabbed elegantly at his lips with a napkin and met Catra’s eyes across the table. Daring her to contradict him. “In fact, Entrapta’s very clinical analysis informs me that Catra exponentially increased efficiency during her time in the position.”

“Oh, that’s incredible.” Marlena praised. “To be so talented at such a young age! Do you still work with Hordak?”

“Uh… sort of…” Catra admitted, still unsure of how to spin her current obligations to Etheria.

“My organization has since shifted focus.” Hordak continued. “Now we are focusing on clean up of the eco-system and renewal of its communities. Catra does still work with us, but she no longer holds a leadership role. She is now the official liaison between my organization and Brightmoon.” 

Catra sighed with relief. Who would have thought that Hordak would be her alley in this dinner where she was gonna be questioned by Adora’s mom? Hordak helping her? Wow. Things really had changed since they beat Prime. 

Then Hordak smirked and added an unnecessary and unsolicited piece of information. “It’s easier that way since Catra lives in Brightmoon with Adora.”

“Oh.” Was that disapproval in Marlena’s voice. “You live together. So this is… serious. Do you have plans to be married?”

Both Catra and Adora became very flustered very quickly. 

“Well, I mean-“

“Catra still has a lot-“

“Adora deserves someone bet-“

“There’s just so much work to do back on Etheria!” Adora finally shouted unnecessarily loud. “We can’t think of marriage until Etheria is recovered and stable!”

“Yeah!” Catra shouted, matching Adora’s volume. “Marriage is the last thing on my mind!”

“It is?” Adora asked in a much more serious and less flustered tone, eyes now focused on Catra and Catra only. “You mean, you haven’t even thought about it at all? ‘Cause, I’ve thought about it a little bit. When we were at the Heart of Etheria, I thought… Never mind! You haven’t thought about it at all?”

“Well, I-“ Catra faltered. “I didn’t know if you were thinking about it, and I didn’t wanna scare you away…”

Even to Catra’s own ears that sounded weak. She wasn’t afraid of ‘scarring Adora away’ when she was intentionally infecting her with a First Ones virus, or taking her friends hostage. 

On the other side of the table, Hordak sipped his wine, enjoying the drama play out. He made his peace with Catra and how she wronged him. But sometimes, it did make him feel good just to see her squirm with discomfort. 

Marlena pursed her lips with disapproval. “If you’re living together, I do hope you’re taking the relationship seriously and have given a thought to where it’s going. I realize you’re young and right now ‘just having fun’ seems like enough. But you will wake up one day and want more than just fun. You’ll want the lifelong companionship of a stable partner and a stable commitment.”

Catra looked down at her reflection in her juice. Stable. She had been many things over her short life. But ‘stable’ was never one of them. 

Did Adora deserve better?

“We haven’t heard anything from Adam!” Adora decided it was best to change the subject. “I just learned I have a brother!” She gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. “C’mon, bro, say something. Help me get to know you!”

“Oh, um,” now it was Adam who felt put on the spot. “I have interests. I… like to read, and watch Duncan and Meckaneck work in the vehicle garage. Ya know, nerd stuff.”

“Bet!” Skeleteen muttered, not looking up from his phone. 

Randor cleared his plate of the meat and belched loudly. 

“Nice one, son.” Miro nodded. 

Now the table, Adora took that as a challenge. She breathed in deep, then let it out again as a reverberating burp that matched Randor’s. 

“Also, nice.” Miro nodded at his granddaughter. “She is definitely a member of this family.”

Skeletor put his face in his hands. “Ugh.” He hated his family. 

Marlena plastered another uncomfortable smile on her face. “Who’s ready for dessert?” A pause. “And an antiacid.” 

The servants entered again, this time carrying treys of tiny macarons, cupcakes with brightly colored frosting, cookies shaped like wild turkeys, and multiple pies. 

Entrapta in particular was especially excited for the tiny macarons and cupcakes. “They’re so cute!”

Hordak offered her his share of the desserts, he hadn’t yet developed a taste for refined sugars and found the desserts too sweet. 

Marlena leaned back in her seat, allowing herself to relax for what was probably the first time since the planning of this dinner began. They were on the dessert course now. Soon everyone would be going home. She could not wait to get Skeletor out of her house and away from her family. She hoped they didn’t stay to digest or socialize with everyone. 

Sure enough, after his plate was clear, Skeletor was the first to stand from the table. “Malkyn, are you ready?”

Skeleteen did not look up from his phone. “Just a sec.”

Skeletor crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his son. 

“Not right now.” Insisted the teenager, as his thumbs danced over the touch screen on his phone. 

“Malkyn!” Skeletor snapped with impatience. He reached a hand out and called his Havoc Staff to his hand. “You have spent all night with your face glued to that thing!”

Sighing, Evil-Lyn drained the last of her glass of clear spirits and similarly stood from the table, her own sorceress’ staff in her hand. 

Adam excused himself from the table. Grabbing Adora by the hand, he pulled her out of the room with him. “Excuse me. I need to pee. Adora, will you come with me, I don’t wanna go alone.”

They left the room. 

Finally, Skeleteen stood from his seat. "Got the last firewall, palace security is mine!" He pressed one final button on his phone’s touch screen. “Okay, now!”

Then the lights went dark!

The only sound was Skeletor’s maniacal laughter. “Myeehehehe!”


	3. Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal

The lights went dark!

The only sound was Skeletor’s maniacal laughter. “Myeehehehe!”

Evil-Lyn created a ball of witchlight to illuminate the room. Floating the ball of light high up near the chandelier so they could see the whole table and everyone at it.

“What is this!?” Demanded Randor. “What’re you doing this time?”

Skeletor placed an arm around Skeleteen’s shoulders. “Isn’t it obvious, Randor, while I was keeping you all distracted with my own very well-founded grievances, my son here was taking down your defenses from the inside! Myeehehehehe!” Then more softly, to Skeleteen, he asked, “That is what’s happening here, right, son?”

Skeleteen did not answer, he just rolled his shoulders to pull out of his father’s hold. “Get off me, old man. Don’t act like you have any idea what’s going on!”

“And what is going on?” Asked Hordak. He remained seated, perfectly calm, and sipping his wine. As if he were the least concerned person in the room. He dated Skeletor in the past and found him utterly unremarkable, how different could his teenaged son be? Really? They had nothing to worry about. 

“I’m glad you asked that, you see I-“ Skeleteen was cut off when a tendril of lavender hair slithered down from the chandelier and coiled itself around the phone in his hand. “What the-!?”

“Oh… let me see…” Entrapta was in the chandelier again, just outside the sphere of light created by Evil-Lyn. Shrouded mostly in shadow, the only part of her that was really visible were the glowing eyes of her mask. She pulled the phone out of Skeleteen’s hand. “You hacked a multi-level security encryption, with adaptive fire walls, and semi-regular password rotations from this little device. Fascinating!”

“Give that back!” Skeleteen climbed onto the table to be close enough to Entrapta to pull the phone out of her hair. He stowed it in an inside pocket of his vest. Then cleared his throat, as if trying to compose himself. “I was a little worried the plan would be blown when cousin Adora’s girlfriend showed up. I thought you might realize that your guards were gone. How else could an intruder get into the palace without raising any alarms?”

Marlena cast a scathing look at her husband and her father-in-law. Both men were there in the garden when the cat-girl appeared. To get to the garden, she would have had to go through six palace floors, and eight levels of security. Yet, Catra just showed up. Miro and Randor were both military men. Marlena was not. They should have noticed the break in security that she did not. But they didn’t. 

“But then I saw how you didn’t even look at your servants.” Skeleteen continued, “and I realized there was nothing to worry about.”

“What?” Marlena was insulted on the rest of her family’s behalf. 

The servants’ door opened again, and the exact same serving staff that had been serving their food and clearing their plates all evening came back out. Only this time, everyone at the table took a good look at them. 

An Andreenid female with uncommonly large eyes for her race. A male Torg that looked a little out of shape for the usually muscular race. A female Snakemen, who waggled an uncommonly long tongue at them tauntingly. A human male with two prosthetic legs with over-sized feet that were shaped almost like canons. 

“Oy, your idiot friends.” Skeletor massaged the sides of his skull as if he still had flesh there with which to get tension headaches. 

Skeleteen ignored his father. “Allow me to introduce my partners, Bug-Eye, Slob-Boar, Tongue-Lasher no relation to Tongue Lashor, I realize that could be confusing, and Missile Toe. They’ll be overseeing you during this brief transitional period.”

“Transitional period?” Randor demanded, not understanding. 

“Oh, was it not clear?” Skeleteen asked, he jumped down off the table to stand in front of his uncle, looking up at the man for their height difference. “I’m taking over.”

He reached a hand up to pluck the gold crown off Randor’s head. 

“Now wait just a-!”

Whatever Randor was going to say was cut off by Skeleteen punching him hard in the middle mass. A solid punch to the soler plexus. Randor gasped, spit-up a little bit of what they had just eaten, then passed out. 

Marlena went to her husband’s side. Kneeling on the floor beside him to make sure he was just unconscious and not otherwise injured. 

“Nice one, son!” Skeletor beamed at him, proud of his boy for knocking out his usurping uncle in one hit. Skeletor held his hand out to Skeleteen, intending the boy to pass him the crown. “I’ll take that.”

Skeleteen sighed. “Oh, Dad, you still don’t know what’s going on here.”

“What?” Skeletor faltered, confused. What was going on here?

“The plan was never to steal the crown and place you on the throne.” Skeleteen informed him. “Don’t you see? You’re part of the problem! The problem with Eternia-“ 

He tossed the crown up in the air, caught it in his hands, then let it drop to the floor where Skeleteen stomped on it with his heavy steel-toed boot. Gold being a soft metal, the crown crumpled under the abuse. 

“-is the absolute authority of a monarchy.”

…

Somewhere else in the place, Adam pulled Adora through a dark hallway. 

Adora didn’t care much for being pulled, especially not by someone she only just met that day. Even if he was her brother. She dug her heels in, scuffing the carpet, and tugged on Adam’s grip until he let go of her wrist. 

“This is a long way to the bathroom.” She informed him. 

Adam lifted his eyes to the dark ceiling where the lights were out, then cast his arms wide to gesture at the silent palace around them. “This is Skeletor’s doing. I got a look at Skeleteen’s phone at dinner and it did not look like he was posting on any social media I know of. They planned this together. I know it.”

“Planned what?” Demanded Adora. “What is ‘this’?”

“See how the lights are out.” Adam began, trying to make his sister understand. He only met her that day, she didn’t grow up on Eternia. She didn’t know how things went on Eternia. “Notice how there isn’t anyone around. No guards, not even savants running around trying to figure out why the power’s out. This isn’t normal. I don’t know how they did it, but Skeletor and Skeleteen did. And I need to stop them!”

“If this isn’t normal, how do you know it’s them?” Adora asked. 

“Because it’s always Skeletor!” Adam snapped at her. They didn’t have time for this. “He’s been trying to take over Eternia since our sixteenth birthday.”

“So, this kinda thing is normal.” Adora concluded. 

“No- well, I mean, yes. Skeletor pulling schemes to take over the planet is common.” Adam admitted. “The palace going dark and not having any guards to speak of is not common.”

“So, to save the day we just have to defeat Uncle Skeletor.” Adora nodded, finally understanding. 

‘We’? Adam was trying to get his twin sister to safety since she didn’t have any experience with Skeletor and didn’t understand how dangerous he was. He wanted to make sure she was out fo the way before he transformed into He-Man to go and battle the villain. Adam didn’t think his parents could survive losing her a second time. 

Adora’s hand went to a gold bracer she wore on his wrist. For half a second he wondered what she was even doing. Then she pulled the gold bracer from her wrist and as it moved it transformed into a sword. Not just any sword, but a Power Sword. 

Adam watched, dumbfounded, as his long lost twin raised a sword over her head that looked almost identical to his own Power Sword and spoke words of transformation that very very similar to his own words. 

“For the Honor of Grayskull!”

Adora was engulfed in light. Her red jacket changed into white and gold armor. Her off-white pants transformed into pure-white tight-pants with a half-skirt in back. Her boots transformed into… better boots. She got taller. Her build more muscular. Her ponytail longer. And a gold helmet on her head. 

“I am She-Ra!”

Adam just stared at her. 

Then blinked. 

Then smiled. 

“You too! That’s great!” He pulled out his own Power Sword, held it over his head and shouted his own words of power. “By the Power of Grayskull!”

Adam was similarly wrapped up in sparkling light. His pink tunic and tights vanishing, to be replaced with only a fur loincloth and power harness. He also got taller, and more muscular. 

“I have the power!”

She-Ra stared at him. “Same sword?”

“Same sword!” He-Man smiled back at her. “Was yours also given to you by whatever Etheria’s equivalent of the Sorceress is?”

“Uh, no.” Admitted She-Ra. “Mine was stuck in the dirt in the woods and overgrown with roots.”

“Ah. Huh.” He-Man didn’t know what to say to that. “Anyway, Skeletor! We have to stop him and rescue our family!”

“Right.” She-Ra nodded. She just found her family. She was not about to lose it again just because of some weird feud between her father and his brother that she wasn’t around for and didn’t understand. “Let’s go get Skeletor!”

He-Man nodded, glad they were on the same page finally. “Skeletor will pay for this!”

…

Skeletor was thrown into a cell in the prison beneath the palace, the bars slamming down in his face. “Malkyn you insufferable, insubordinate, disobedient welp!” 

“Should we put your mother in there with him?” Asked Missile Toe, whom was holding Evil-Lyn, her hands bound behind her back, her staff taken from her. She glared at Skeleteen, her expression conveying much of the same feelings Skeletor was just shouting. 

“What are you kidding!? Have you met my parents? They’ll kill each other!” Skeleteen shook his head. “No. Put my mother in with Marlena. Uncle Randor can share with my father. They did grow up together, after all, they should have learned to share.”

Skeletor tried to make a break for it when they reopened his cell’s bars, but King Randor’s unconscious body was thrown at him and he went stumbling back into the cell, pinned under his unconscious brother’s bulk. 

Skeletor’s mother and Randor’s mother were also put into a cell together. They didn’t seem to mind this, however. Once the bars were slammed shut, they started making out with each other. He-Man would show up eventually and rescue everyone. Might as well do something fun to pass the time. 

Miro went into a cell by himself. 

Catra and Hordak were manhandled into yet another cell, and Entrapta- 

“Where’s the last one?” Skeleteen demanded, suddenly realizing that the Etherian princess was missing from their roster of prisoners. “Where’s Hordak’s plus one?”

“Maybe she broke up with him and this is her way of letting him know!” Skeletor called from his cell, pushing his brother off himself. As pissed as he was at his son, he still couldn’t pass up the opportunity to jab at his ex-boyfriend. 

“Entrapta is not you!” Hordak shouted back. “And your malcontent progeny is right to be concerned. Entrapta is the most brilliant scientific mind on all of Etheria. She find a way to release us.”

“Assuming she doesn’t get distracted and stop to rewire to whole castle instead.” Catra muttered next to him. 

It didn’t matter. Entrapta wasn’t the important one. Adora got away. Her bland and unremarkable brother pulled her out of the room just before Skeleteen sprang his trap. As long as She-Ra was out there, they were already as good as rescued. 

Catra yawned. All she had to do was wait for her princess in shining armor to come rescue her. Catra leaned against the back wall of the cell she shared with Hordak and started cleaning her nails. Confident that Adora would save the day.


End file.
